Struggling to close deals in today’s market? Let’s get practical and tactical and look at three simple goal-setting techniques that will help you increase your closing ratios.

Early on in my career, I woke up without a plan. I would log into MLS, get distracted by the notifications, decide to update my profile, open my email and social media accounts and dive headfirst into the wormhole. 

I would get a lead and be super excited about the opportunity, but I didn’t have a system for getting from the call to closing. I felt “busy,” but I wasn’t getting the expected results. 

So I found people who were. And I studied them in depth. What did they do differently by which they were achieving success when so many in this industry gave up before they even had a chance to succeed?!

Do some goal-setting before investing time, skill or money

A huge unlock for me was zooming out and setting up goals for what I wanted to accomplish BEFORE I deployed time, skill or money.

The three pillars I focused on to start with were setting clear goals personally, professionally and transactionally.

Personal goals

If your personal life is falling apart, it will seep into your professional life, and people can FEEL it. 

No one wants to do business with people they don’t trust or who don’t show discipline or professionalism in their personal life.

If you had to grade the following from 1-10, with 7 not being an option,* where would these fall in your life? (This is my stack. Modify it to whatever tracks with your ambitions.)

• Faith
• Fitness
• Family
• Friends
• Finances

If I take care of my stack in order, by the time I get to work, I’m PUMPED and EXCITED that I GET to do my job. 

Others I meet resent their work because their family is upset they work all the time. Or they feel sluggish and unhealthy, which studies have proven makes you more irritable and likely to fly off the handle. 

What you focus on expands. 

It doesn’t mean I’m perfect by any means, but if any of these fall below a 6, I ask myself what small action I can do to make it an 8-10. 

Often, it’s just frontloading the calendar with family trips, walks to the beach and time-blocking my workouts in at a time I KNOW they’ll get done. Personally, I had to start waking up earlier to get my mind and body right before the world started pulling on me. It took time and effort to make the change, but I can tell you that the version of myself now would run OVER Justin 1.0. 

If I don’t take the time to ask myself these questions, how fast will time pass without me making improvements? I can tell you: Decades in the blink of an eye.

Professional goals

Having a plan for what you would like to be known for, including transaction volume, marketing plans and budgets, is no different than plotting a course for a journey across the ocean.

Not having a plan is also no different than not plotting a course across the ocean.

Which would you rather do if you were crossing the Pacific?

Reverse engineer success. As an example, if you want 50 deals:

• 8 dials = 1 contact
• 12 contacts = 1 lead
• 5 leads = 1 appointment 
• 2 appointments = 1 contract
• 2 contracts = 1 transaction 
• 240 contacts = 1 transaction

By this metric, if you wanted to do 50 deals a year, you should contact 230 people a week. Let’s say you can only commit to prospecting four days a week. That’s 55 people (rounded down).

That’s not a lot. If you sit down for 30 minutes, open your CRM, hit 45-50 people a day x5 days a week — there are your 50 deals. 

The key is like my morning routine: start with 1-5 people daily until you develop a system. What you focus on improves. If you commit to it, you get faster. My bet is with one hour of focused prospecting time daily, you can get to 100-200 touches quickly. But it starts with one. 

The real secret? Most successful agents do 1-3 hours a day because they understand one clear thing: prospecting is the easiest way to always stay in business. 

This doesn’t mean turning into a boiler room cold-calling machine. Prospecting can be DMing a contact on Instagram, texting or emailing, but yes, a human call is the mother of all connections. The key is to log the contact in a system where you can track your efforts. 

The basics are undefeated. 

Transactional goals

Many people don’t realize that it’s essential to have a clear picture of success in a transaction with a client. Be it a buyer or seller, tenant or landlord, all of these have different measures of success.

Some are price-related, some are condition-related, some are tied to an overall portfolio strategy where the transaction is part of a bigger plan. 

The best thing you can do for a client is spend the time to reverse engineer what success looks like for THEM. Many agents get this wrong — they fail to remember that we are FIDUCIARIES. This means that the client’s goals are above our own. 

Think about how this has played out in the industry:

Agents who throw cutting comments amid tense negotiations to belittle others so they can feel important or because they felt slighted in the past and are looking for revenge — all while their client suffers the costs, unbeknownst to them. 

A broker-owner so caught up in a personal vendetta that he chooses to exert power over a minor contractual disagreement that could lead to an unneeded legal battle between clients when everything could have been easily mediated.

The listing agent who literally tells a client that they need to buy through them “because it’ll be easier to get the deal done” and builds a reputation for it. 

I could probably write three articles on stories that all give you the same “feeling,” but I think you get the point. All of these are typically a sign of shortsightedness and insecurity. 

Over time, focusing on the transactional goal will allow you and your clients to develop a stronger bond and relationship as you’re tested with various challenging situations because, if documented, you can always zoom out to the original goal, then zoom in to the problem at hand for a pragmatic solution. 

Plan ahead to execute well

So, what goals are YOU going to set — personally, professionally and transactionally?

I bet there are deals and things you can think of RIGHT NOW.

I know that simply writing this has reminded me to update mine. I used to business plan every December, but over the years I’ve realized that in our business, you need to be working 60-90 days AHEAD of when you’re looking to execute. This means that planning for me now starts after Labour Day so I’ve got a clean plan in writing by October. 

If you need help or accountability, reach out anytime. Sometimes all it takes is sending a message.

* 7 is a non-answer — if you force yourself to choose 6 or 8, you know where you really stand.

Social media is what we make of it — for better or worse. I recently shared how competition drives innovation at the best of times, but when things are tough, comparison leaves us miserable. Expanding on what’s helped me achieve authenticity with integrity, here’s some more food for thought.

Build a real brand

I’m not talking about pretending you’re on a private jet or going to Fyre Festival or driving your Bugatti, unless that’s your actual life. I’m talking about thinking about what makes YOU happy and finding those in alignment. 

Here’s an example from my experience.

Jiu-jitsu is a bit of a niche sport. Maybe not so much these days, but when I started back in 2005 it was akin to the movie Fight Club in most people’s minds. As a kid I was bullied and martial arts was something I naturally gravitated towards. Having made it a part of my life for more than a decade, it taught me discipline and resilience and I still give it credit for much of my success today. I didn’t share much about my life in that world back then because I never thought it mattered. Why would anyone buying real estate care about jiu-jitsu?

The reality was I was overlooking the fact that on the mats daily were police officers, lawyers, musicians, tradespeople and everything in between. As I shared more and more about my progression in the sport, more people would engage on those posts and my newest listing or sale — by a LARGE margin. DMs would come asking for gym recommendations — they would show up and I would make new friends. Then it clicked again when I met one of my mentors, Ryan Serhant, who said, “No one wants to be sold, but everyone loves shopping with friends.”

In one year I did close to a dozen transactions strictly from my gym family. I helped them relocate the building, all without ever pitching anyone. 

Actually, when I think about it, I ACTIVELY didn’t speak about real estate, but it always came up. Because through my content, I was sharing what I was doing day-to-day when I wasn’t in the gym. This led to giving my people the ability to decide if I was right for them. Rather than trying to sell someone who would never want to work with me anyway, this was a much more natural and sustainable approach. Not to mention the hack of getting to do something I love all while building my business.

So what is it you love? Restaurants? Sewing? Fitness? Fishing? Cars? Cats? It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you don’t hide your light. The more you shine your light, the more the right people can find it.

Tell stories of your true journey — reputation is built over time but lost forever in a moment

People love stories. They love hearing about struggle and, more than that, when the underdog overcomes the struggle. New agents struggle with what to share and often make the mistake of trying to showcase they are more advanced in their careers than they actually are.

 A trend in real estate is new agents booking “previews” of luxury listings and attempting to showcase those listings as their own. They’re hoping to build a reputation of being a “luxury agent” without having the skill set to go along with handling clients of this calibre and complexity.

There’s nothing worse than getting an opportunity for a sale, only to have them know very quickly that you’re not qualified. Reputation is something built over time but lost forever in a moment. 

Instead, share your ACTUAL journey and where you’re at. People want to be part of the come-up.

Just learning contracts? Take time to be around people with experience and share that journey with your community. Formulate unique perspectives and insights. You’ll quickly find that people appreciate frank candour rather than being sold.

For example, I once shared about the residency clause in the typical APS. I learned that a BUYER could be liable for capital gains if the seller was a non-resident and fled before paying. Furthermore, if the agents didn’t do their due diligence in identifying the parties, they could be sued.

I shared this in a post on Instagram when I only had 150 followers. A builder was in the middle of a deal, saw the video and told me he saved himself from a costly mistake. He never liked the post. He never shared it. But, he did call me for coffee and a partnership which, to me, is far more valuable. 

Social media can save you from the wrong clients

I almost forgot to mention how much social media saved me from the wrong clients. The business we’ve built would not survive on a discount model. That’s not saying that a discount model doesn’t work for others or is wrong, it’s just not what we chose. 

Putting out as much content as we have, I’m positive that we’ve saved hundreds of hours of effort from working with people who don’t see the value in what we do. 

There are nearly eight billion people on the planet. If only one billion want to sell their houses with me, I’m okay with that. Every “no” gets me closer to that one billion. 

Now what?

You’ve now peeked behind the curtain. You realize that the “fake” side of social media will always be there. At the same time, you realize the “social” side of social media is underutilized. 

It doesn’t mean you need to dance on TikTok. It doesn’t mean you need to book a trip and hire a lifestyle photographer — unless, of course, that’s who you really are. Instead, it means that it’s okay to be yourself.

Share your interests. Share your passions. Find the place where the things you love intersect with what people will pay you for. Share it consistently for long enough, and I’m sure a builder will be calling you before long for that coffee that you always wanted. Attract the right people. Repel the wrong ones. 

You hate social media because you think it’s fake.

You think it’s fake because you see many people showing versions of themselves that seem “off.”

You don’t post because you’re scared you must do the same to succeed. 

Meanwhile, the people who grow the most understand that the OPPOSITE is true. 

I was just like you

Early on in my career, I was super naive. I saw people with more significant followings and assumed they were the real deal. I wondered why I only had 100-200 followers. I wondered why I only got four likes on a post, and what I had to do to become an authority in real estate. 

I put out SO much content, hosted events and supported other people like CRAZY, but I didn’t see any traction online. I watched other accounts (TOO much) grow by tens of thousands of followers and felt like I was failing. 

Then I noticed something.

My phone was ringing. People called me saying they wanted my content and wanted to work together. 

I got listings. We grew. 

I also noticed those same people with 5-10 times my following were NOT selling. Online, they looked great, but it didn’t translate to REAL relationships. 

Then I figured out the problem

When I reached a certain threshold, I started getting pitched to BUY followers — the new trend in getting engagement/comments/views.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

It felt GROSS, and I had to make a decision. If I was going to go that route, there was no going back.

Some people will do it because, “It’s sales, baby!” If that’s your jam, go for it. For me, when people hear my name, what’s more important to me is this proverb:

“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.” 

This business is fraught with pitfalls. Competition is great. Comparison is not.

In the best of times, competition drives innovation. It can show us what’s possible and help us refine our best selves. 

In the worst of times, comparison leaves us miserable, despite the fact that we still have so much. 

So how can you solve this? Here’s what helped me achieve authenticity with integrity.

Shut out the noise

What you focus on expands. I did a time audit and started catching myself when I was spending more time worried about my competition than growing my own business. So, I researched better ways to curate my feed: 

1. Unfollow and block people

I know this sounds aggressive but it was necessary at the time. It may not have been a “them” problem — their content actually WAS that good. Rather, it was me realizing that to accomplish the dreams I had required drastic measures, and this was one of them. 

I FORCED myself to unfollow anyone that gave me that negative feeling.

It wasn’t a lot of work. I didn’t overthink it. I just went off feel. 

At first, it didn’t make a difference. But, after being thoughtful about it for a couple of months, I found myself being MUCH more productive online. Posting with a purpose and GHOSTING. Not doomscrolling or feeling bad. WIN. 

2. Build community

After I figured out who I didn’t want in my feeds, I realized the algorithms on ALL platforms WANT to serve you the RIGHT people. 

Think about it.  If your feed is filled with terrible things, it’s probably more a reflection of what you actually look at or engage with.

Did you know that just PAUSING on a post for 1.5 seconds counts as an impression?

When I realized this I did another quick Google search: “How to clean up your feed on ‘insert any social platform here’”

I’ll save you the research:

• Click “see less” 
• Click “X” to close the post
• Unfollow 

Every single platform has a simple way to tell it you don’t want that content in your feed. Ask yourself when you last took time to TELL the platforms what you WANT.

Same as unfollowing people, it didn’t take much effort. It was simple actions done consistently over time that allowed me to succeed here.

This was one of the BIGGEST unlocks. Slowly but surely so many people I wanted to communicate with were popping up in my feed.

So much of what I didn’t like about social media went away: The petty political arguments. The provocative. The violence. The fear.

Social media is not fake unless you assume so or engage with it in that way

What dominates the bulk of people’s feeds adds nothing good to your lives, I promise you that. 

What dominates my feed is a community of people who are driven and intelligent, with integrity. 

What dominates my feed are things that make me smarter.

What dominates my feed are people who are IN my community. 

Social media is meant to be social. It’s not fake unless you assume it is or engage with it in that way.

Social media is the cafeteria at your high school. You choose the table to sit down at, and guess what? You can stand up and change tables anytime. So, I did.

I doubled down on MY people. The ones who cheered for us and wanted us to win. I continued trying to provide valuable solutions to their problems regardless of the vanity metrics.

It took me a LONG time, but the platforms figured out who I was talking to, and the compound effect is undefeated. We’ve now reached over nine million people and climbed across multiple platforms, but that’s unimportant.

What’s important is that we continue to find the RIGHT people.

What’s important is slow growth over time will yield something sustainable and valuable. 

Stop worrying about followers. Stop worrying about likes. Stop worrying about views. 

Instead, focus on the human beings at the other end of the DM or phone call. They are REAL people. Stop treating your “community” like income lines on a spreadsheet. When you do that, everything will change.

Stay tuned for my next piece with more on how you can use social media in a way that helps you achieve authenticity with integrity.

The celebritization of our industry has reached a breaking point. 

In 2022-2023, many newer agents came into this business with the dreams of Selling Sunset. Now, they’re facing a new reality.

The highlight reel of life promised by Instagram comes with some fine print.

Sales are a result of core competencies, not followers and likes. Yet, the roadmap for new agents seems to be in reverse order:

• Take lifestyle photos to show you are successful
• Pick a colour scheme and design a logo
• Take videos of yourself in other agents’ listings (don’t worry, the consumer will think it’s yours!)

But, what happens when the phone rings and that ever-elusive buyer has chosen YOU?

Do you understand the market and product you’re selling?

Can you explain to them the roadmap of buying a home?

Are you educated on your legal and compliance obligations?

Because the agents doing deals can definitely answer yes to these questions.

Offer sound strategy and data interpretation

In an age driven by attention, there’s a silent return to the age of the craftsman. 

Consumers are becoming desensitized by seeing the same repurposed content strategy.

They’re exhausted by being re-marketed and resold to through many advertising platforms.

It has never been easier to stand out if you can showcase market intelligence. How? By offering sound strategy and interpretation of data.

That’s not to say building online platforms won’t help. It’s to say that if you don’t focus on being able to do the job like a true professional FIRST, a large platform might end up exposing rather than helping you. 

Consumers are hungry for professionals

The good news is if you’re willing to put in the effort, it has never been easier to succeed.

But how? By following the learn, build, do framework.

Learn

Spend time studying the market. Speak with other agents — they’re your best friends in this business. Get out of the echo chamber of real estate and understand the conversations happening around you. 

Spend time learning from economists (like Benjamin Tal if you’re in Canada). Listen to how lenders are thinking. Speak with consumers and ASK them questions rather than SELL to them.

Uncovering their concerns will give you a clear path to where your value lies. Interpret the market and be their guide rather than just another salesperson.

Build

Work ON your business, DAILY. Build SYSTEMS for how you handle every step of a transaction. Once you have a system, stick to it, review it and refine it.

The best businesses have come from agents who are improving their workflows. 

Do

Leaning and building are only helpful if you practice your craft. They say you can’t call yourself an artist, athlete or craftsperson if you don’t do the thing two hours a week.

The bar is low, people. The number of “real estate agents” who have no ambition to actually sell a house would astound you. 

This framework should excite you, as the opportunity to become part of the top 1 per cent doesn’t need uncommon talents or skills. Rather, it requires an uncommon ability to be consistent over time with the principles of pricing, marketing and negotiation — in that very order. 

Pricing, marketing and negotiating consistently

So how do you become consistent in these three key aspects?

Pricing. Add a daily habit of checking the MLS feeds. Get specific to your niche or product type and area. By doing something as simple as this, you’ll find yourself seeing patterns in new listings and sales. Then, when you’re in the field, you’ll be shocked at how that information becomes valuable when that lead reaches out, the phone rings or someone asks you about the area or market.

Marketing. FOCUS on your marketing efforts. Plan how you will run campaigns on your listings. Budget your marketing plan for the year. Measure what’s working, double-down on what’s working and cut back on what’s not. What separates the professional from the amateur is treating your business like an actual business.

Negotiation. Spend time around people who are levels above you and be a fly on the wall. Be present, listening to what works and what doesn’t. Ask questions. Read books. Study the craft. The best negotiations are made practically and tactically. They have a plan. The difference between a pro and an amateur? While everyone has a plan, the amateur’s plan is not having a plan.

Our industry is at a crossroads. If we choose to prioritize vanity metrics (likes, views) over quality of work and character, we may win in the short-term game of attention but my fear is we’ll lose in the long-term view of the consumer. By prioritizing the work and the craft, we become undeniable. 

“Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”

 

– Steven Pressfield, The War of Art